EDITORIAL
MY HOSA SUCCESS STORY
By Jon Campbell, 2008-09 National Region 2 Vice President
When I started out in HOSA (Health Occupations Students of
America) around five years ago, I was a very drawn back and
a shy individual. I had been thru a lot of battles in my life from
cancer to being a rape victim.
I still remember my first day of health science class, I was
originally signed up for band, but I got mad at the director and
switched classes the second day of school. When I signed
up for health science I was looking for a class that I thought
would be easy to pass and that I wouldn’t have to do much
in. My first semester of health science was a breeze and is
when I decided to join HOSA. Our instructor at the time really
did not know much about the organization, so we really did
not do anything. My second semester of health science our
school hired a new health science instructor. This woman
is one of the most dedicated, hardworking, and determined
women I know. Her first day she explained to our class what
she thought HOSA was. Within weeks she started getting
us involved in HOSA, of course I was always held back and
never wanted to get involved in the group activities.
Over a portion of the year I had decided on myself to run for
a National HOSA office. I am not going to lie when I arrived
at the conference I was sure to myself I would not make it to
the executive candidate interviews, but for some reason the
2007-2008 HOSA executive council saw something in me and
chose me to run for region 2 vice president. After giving my
campaign speech I was sure that I had not won, and I was
ready to say congratulations to my opponents. Then when I
least expected the night of the awards ceremony my name
was called as the 2008-2009 National HOSA Region 2 Vice
President. To this very day that was the happiest day of my
life.
I am still currently serving my position as National HOSA
Region 2 Vice President. I serve this position with pride and
determination and do the best of my abilities. After all the
disappointments in my life HOSA gave me an experience of
a lifetime. It gave me something that I can truly say not many
others have done.
That is my HOSA success story.
Later one day our new health science instructor took us to
the local hospital to see what doctors and nurses really go
through everyday. I knew as soon as I walked in that hospital
I wanted to be a doctor; Although most of my childhood was
spent in the hospital due to cancer I never thought I was
smart enough to work in the health care field. Finally one day
I told my teacher I wanted to go into the health care field one
day. She looked me straight in the eyes and told me I could
do whatever I set my mind to. For the first time in my life I felt
like someone believed in me.
My instructor later pushed me to run for local HOSA office,
however, I told her over and over I was going to lose, and I
did not want to humiliate myself like that. Come election day,
I found out later that afternoon I had been elected my local
HOSA historian. The next year I decided to run for a higher
office, because serving as historian gave me the experience
I needed to do a good job. I then was elected as my local
HOSA president.
After being elected my local president my advisor talked me
into taking my experience further and run for state office.
Excited as I was when I got to the state conference I broke
down in tears telling myself, I could not do it, it was just to
much for me to handle. My advisor set me down later and
calmed me down, she talked me into going ahead and giving
it a try. Later that evening I was elected the 2007-2008
Alabama HOSA president. All I could think of that entire
day was how far I had come, from being that held back shy
individual. I thought this was the happiest day of my entire
life, until I went to my second National HOSA Conference in
Dallas, Texas.